What Does Foot Washing REALLY Mean?? | Pastor Reacts

The He Gets Us Campaign and the Question of Foot Washing

So Christians are only meant to wash other Christians' feet. Is that true though? Let's take a look at John chapter 13 together. I know this is going to blow some of your minds, but God provides a service to non-believers.

And ironically, I think that He Gets Us, the campaign, actually understands this better than a lot of people who jumped on social media to condemn it. These last few days have been explosive in the Christian community.

Christian influencers and commentators have come out in droves to slam the He Gets Us campaign. Everyone has lost their minds over this. Did you see that ad that played at the Super Bowl? Because we're going to walk through that in a moment, but I'm just concerned as I'm watching this conversation play out that we're all missing something.

I actually wasn't going to respond to any of this, but then I saw the Babylon Bee do a satire and I thought, man, I think we're missing something here, ladies and gentlemen. So let's put on our thinking caps and jump right in.

Who the He Gets Us Campaign Is Trying to Reach

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Okay.

So during the Super Bowl, an ad played called He Gets Us, and it looked like this. So I'm not going to play the audio here, but there are some images, and it's of people just getting their feet washed.

What I notice are people who would not normally be together, who would not normally be seen together. This one particularly was frustrating to see, and we'll talk about it. Yeah, but this is an old lady washing a young lady's feet.

Presumably she's coming out of a clinic where she's seeking to terminate the life of the unborn insider. Some other images, but these are all people who are washing the feet of those who it appears they would not normally wash.

There's a lot that's being communicated, but right now there are no words, just images. And then finally, at the end, we see a minister washing the feet of an LGBT person, and it says, Jesus didn't teach hate, he washed feet.

He gets us, all of us, Jesus. Now you guys have seen this, and it ends with love your neighbor. So that's interesting. Interesting connection. Clearly we see some triggering images, right? I was triggered by some of these images, and I say triggering really just to a certain demographic that was triggered, like myself, conservative Christians.

These images were triggering, but to others, I don't think they are at all. So the first question I have is, who is the intended audience for this ad campaign? Is it conservative Christians like myself who already know the scripture pretty well, or is it non-believers?

Well, let's go to the He Gets Us website in order to find out the answer to this question.

Okay.

This is from an article entitled, He Gets Us Has an Agenda. This is directly from the He Gets Us website, and they're going to explain to us what they're trying to accomplish. So let's hear them out. How did the story of a man who taught and practiced unconditional love, peace, and kindness, who spent his life defending the poor and the marginalized, a man who even forgave his killers while they executed him unjustly, whose life inspired a radical movement that is still impacting the world thousands of years later?

How did this man's story become associated with hatred and oppression for so many people? And how might we all rediscover the promise of the love that his story represents? Those are the questions at the heart of He Gets Us.

Okay.

It seems like these guys, the He Gets Us folks, they're going after people who either have never heard of Jesus before, or have a misunderstanding of Him based on their lack of sufficient exposure to church and to the Bible.

Now, that actually raises another interesting question. Do these kinds of folks exist in our society? Folks who have a lack of sufficient exposure and knowledge to the Bible and to church, and the answer is yes.

This is an article from Barna, and they did a study on people who are what's called church-less, okay, in our society. So let's listen and see what they have to say. The number of unchurched people in America would make the eighth most populous country in the world.

As of 2014, the estimated number of people in the United States who Barna group would define as church-less, meaning they have not attended a Christian church service, other than a special event such as a wedding or a funeral, at any time during the past six months, stands at 114 million.

You add to that the roughly 42 million children and teenagers who are unchurched, and you have 156 million U .S. residents who are not engaged with a Christian church. To put that in context, if all those unchurched people were a separate nation, it would be the eighth most populous country in the world, trailing only China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh—check this out—and the remaining churched public of the United States, which stands at 159 million.

So that's interesting. So those who do actually go to church, who are churched, are 159 million in this country, and those who are church-less are almost exactly that same number. So this is a near 50 -50 split.

And again, the church-less are not a people who go once a month. They don't ever go.

Why?

What happened? Well, let's take a look. Very few of America's unchurched adults are purely unchurched. Most of them, rather, are de-churched. Only about one quarter of unchurched adults—23 %—has never attended a Christian church at any time in his or her life, other than for a special service, such as a wedding or a funeral ceremony.

The majority of unchurched individuals—76 %—have first-hand experience with one or more Christian churches, and based on that sampling, have decided they can better use their time in other ways. So they've had some exposure to church and decided that it was better that they not go back—that's interesting.

Why is that the case? So I hope you understand. What I'm doing here is I'm sort of walking through the kind of mental exercise that I think we should be performing in order to truly evaluate this whole He Gets Us campaign.

So again, why is it the case that these folks decided not to go back to church? Well, one of the reasons is the breakdown of trust in our society. In other words, a lot of folks, for various reasons, just do not trust the church.

They look at it as an institution that cannot be trusted. So Lifeway did a study on this. This was last year, and essentially it says trust in the church or organized religion is up slightly from 31 to 32 in 2023, okay?

Only 32 of folks trust the church. Only 32 see the church as an institution that they can trust. And by the way, this is across the board. So it's not just the church that lacks trust. It's also media, government, the military.

It's basically all institutions. We are just in the midst of a crisis of trust in our society, and it's expressed across the board. But of the folks who do not trust the church, how does this break down?

What does this demographic look like? Take a look at this. It says some Americans are less likely than others to have trust in the church. Younger adults are more distrustful than those who are older.

Americans 18 to 34, 24 have lower levels of confidence than those 35 to 54 and 55 and older. Democrats and independents are half as likely as Republicans to have a fair or a great deal of confidence in the church.

Interesting. So we're starting to see the breakdown. It's young adults, Democrats, and independents that appear to distrust the church on a greater scale than others. But does this equate to being church-less?

Of course it does. Those same types of folks who do not attend church—Lifeway did another study on this—38 of independents do not attend church, 35 of Democrats do not attend, 2 out of 5 young adults—that's 40 of them—do not attend church.

So let's put all these pieces together, okay? And by the way, just to get ahead of some of you, because maybe you're already angrily commenting below, I don't think that he gets us campaign is worth doing, guys.

So don't misunderstand this exercise. I'm just trying to walk through this critically so that we really see what's going on here, okay? So again, I ask the question, who is the he gets us campaign talking to?

Maybe it's two young adults, independents and Democrats, who do not trust the church and do not attend it. And oh, by the way, probably don't even know what the Bible teaches in the first place. So don't even get me started on biblical illiteracy, because everyone is guilty of that, inside and outside the church.

So it's natural that ignorance of the scripture, especially the work and person of Jesus Christ, is rampant, especially among those who distrust the church and do not attend. Okay, you with me so far?

So this is probably part of the rationale that went into making the ad. It also probably explains the imagery. So in other words, maybe one of the reasons that the images look the way they do is not because it represents what's really going on with true Christians.

The biggest image in my mind that was triggering for me, and I think I pointed it out, was the two people in front of the abortion clinic, those Christians with their billboards standing around, you know, off to the side, right?

That's not representative of the ones I know. Friends of mine who really go to clinics and try to communicate to folks walking in, right, they're doing it out of a deep love and concern for not only the unborn, but for the mothers as well.

But maybe these images are meant to represent what non-believers in this demographic believe about Christians and the church.

Why?

Because they're appealing to that demographic. They're not appealing to us. They're not talking to us. He gets his crowd. So if you saw, you know, Matt Walsh or Ali Beth Stuckey and others this past week, they had a big problem with this ad.

As a matter of fact, what took the cake for me, and of course, right, the Babylon Bee just released this. So again, I'm not playing the audio here, but for those on the audio podcast, it's just a bunch of images and it says, he accepts you just as you are.

And these are people living in squalor, you know, they're not probably doing what they should be doing. This person's lying in the street. There's another one where there's rioters and looting. And it says, he affirms everything about you, especially your sin.

He wants to be with you in eternity. Who are they talking about? They're talking about Satan. They're talking about the devil. So, and then it says Satan gets us, right? So the whole point is that Satan doesn't want us to change.

Satan just wants us exactly to stay the same that we are. And that's what he affirms, which is exactly what I expect the Babylon Bee to do in this kind of a situation. But wait a second, guys. Hold on a second.

Are we missing a greater point that he gets us is trying to make? So here's the question that we should be asking. What specifically is the problem with the He Gets Us campaign? I have an answer to that question and I'm going to give it to you in a moment.

But just think about it. Is it about misapplying the washing of feet, as a lot of Christians are suggesting, or is it about something else? So again, I saw a lot of church folk on Twitter and social media pushing back against the ad because they said that, well, you know, Jesus only meant for his disciples to wash each other's feet.

Foot Washing as Humility, Servanthood, and the Cross

So Christians are only meant to wash other Christians' feet, right? Is that true though? Well, let's take a look at John chapter 13 together. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper, he laid aside his outer garments and, taking a towel, tied it around his waist.

Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter who said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet? Jesus answered, what I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.

Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I do not wash you, you have no share with me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. And Jesus said to him, the one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean.

And you are clean, but not every one of you. For he knew who was to betray him. That was why he said, not all of you are clean. When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, do you understand what I have done to you?

So here it is, you call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I've given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you.

Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Okay.

Now, it's difficult to identify what's going on in this particular passage because of the way that it's presented, especially the way that Jesus talks about it, and also it's because it's the only time in any of the four Gospels where this event is recorded.

Okay, noted. But that doesn't mean that we cannot determine what the message of foot washing is, and I think that message is being lost in this exchange, this pushback against the Super Bowl ad. A lot of Christians think that what Jesus is doing here is he's teaching the disciples about his death on the cross, that when he washes their feet, that he's communicating a symbolic message about taking up their sins upon himself and cleansing them, okay?

And that actually explains Jesus wiping their dirt clean with a towel that is wrapped around his own body. That actually explains what Jesus sort of initially said to Peter. And by the way, I actually agree with all of this.

I think Jesus is giving a picture of what's to come on the cross. That's why he does say to Peter, what I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. After what? After his death on the cross and resurrection.

But foot washing is not simply about Jesus' death on the cross for sin. It's actually about something deeper than that. How do I know that? Well, did you notice that Jesus washes Judas' feet? Judas is there, guys, right there, right at the very beginning, right?

Verse 2. Judas is the one who was about to betray Jesus, right? Literally in verse 2, he's the one that is being influenced by the devil. Jesus also washes Peter's feet. Peter, the one who will openly deny Jesus in front of men.

Even after Jesus said, whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my father who is in heaven. Peter denies Jesus before men and Jesus washes his feet too. So what do we do with this now? What does foot washing really mean?

Well, notice the command that Jesus gave in verse 14. If I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. So on the one hand, this can be seen as a picture of Jesus on the cross.

I think that is the case because of the conversation that Peter and Jesus have, right? But then Jesus makes this comment in verse 14. Now we can see it's actually about something deeper. That means that foot washing, it entails certainly the essential, you know, sort of the sacrificial act of Christ on the cross, but there's a deeper principle, and that's the act of Christ lowering himself, taking a lowly servant's position, and sacrificing himself for the sake of others because he loves him.

That is the ultimate message of foot washing. That's actually why he talks about greatness in verse 16. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If the master takes the lowliest position, then guess what?

The servant should be just as lowly as the master. The same principle of humility, of self-sacrifice through agape, right? That is taught—it's actually taught in Philippians 2. Okay, so here's the encouragement to Christians in the church at Philippi, chapter 2, verse 3.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant.

Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Okay, so you see, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for our sin is actually preceded by another principle, a deeper one.

It's as if the death of Jesus on the cross is the tip of the iceberg, but the base of that iceberg that runs below the surface of the water is Jesus emptying himself, not considering equality with God a thing to be grasped, taking on the form of a servant and humbling himself.

And that's what we don't talk enough about in church, and we certainly don't do it enough on social media, but that's precisely what Jesus is teaching in the foot-washing, humility and servanthood. And that explains his command to his disciples that they go and do likewise.

He wants them to be servants like him, to take the lowly position, to be a blessing to others the way that he has just blessed them. And that's the genius of Jesus. In one act of foot-washing, he has taught multiple layers of ideas.

You see that? Okay, so now here's the next question. Are Christians supposed to be lowly, humble servants to other Christians only, or to non-believers? Okay, because it appears that the He Gets Us campaign is suggesting that we should be lowly and humble and like servants to non-believers.

That Jesus, and therefore the disciples, they would be lowly, humble servants to non-believers, which again has apparently gotten a lot of church folks upset. A lot of folks have been saying, no, no, no, no, wait!

Jesus wouldn't wash the feet of non-believers. And you know what? I get it. It's right there in John. If I, then your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

Okay?

So that's literally what it says. The disciples should do this act for one another.

Okay?

So the scripture does appear to limit the scope of this type of lowly servitude to only your brothers and sisters in church community. Except, wait a minute. If we understand the true message of foot-washing, which is to be humble servants, is that the overarching message of Jesus and his entire ministry?

That we should only be humble servants to other Christians in church, but not to non-believers? I don't think so, ladies and gentlemen. That sounds weird. Particularly when you remember that Jesus said this.

This is Matthew chapter 5, verse 14. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. A lot of us read that, and we don't hear the Old Testament in what Jesus just said.

We don't think of Jesus as being a first century rabbi and shaping his teaching in such a way to stand on top of the Old Testament teaching. And so we miss all the times that God says that his people should be a light to the nations.

Not just to each other in a close community, but to the nations, to the Gentiles, to those who are outside the community of God. This actually explains Jesus when he says this just a few verses later in Matthew 5.

You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. See, we read this word love, and we don't recognize that it means an act of service.

How do I know that? Because Jesus defines it for us, if we keep reading. Verse 45. So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, for he, watch this, makes his son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

I know this is going to blow some of your minds, but God provides a service to.

Non-believers.

He serves the evil by making his son rise on them. He serves the unjust by sending rain on them. This is the example of the type of love that Jesus appeals to when he tells us how to do it. That's what it means to be a son or daughter of the Father.

If part of the family business of the Father is to send blessings upon non-believers, we should do the same. That's what it means to be a light of the world, ladies and gentlemen. Jesus wants us to be of service to those around us, particularly those who are in the world, so that they will see our good works and give glory to our Father in.

Heaven.

That's what that means. If you think about that for a split second, being humble and serving non-believers is actually the natural precursor to sharing the gospel, is it not? By the way, we already know this.

All compassion care centered around church ministries and even some parachurch organizations, they already do this. Every church's homeless ministry does this already. They provide food, they provide shelter, clothing, dental care, legal services, all those things, and they let those blessings lead to opportunities to share the gospel.

I'm concerned that a lot of us think that the gospel is just a bunch of words, and so therefore we need to be extremely careful about how we say those words. We need to make sure those words are said and every word is articulated so that the words are understood.

I've got news for you, ladies and gentlemen. The gospel is also exemplified through our humble, forgiving, peacemaking, self-sacrificial actions as well. Ironically, I think that He Gets Us, the campaign, actually understands this better than a lot of people who jumped on social media to condemn it.

Why the He Gets Us Campaign Is a Bad Idea

Now, I say ironically because I'm actually one of those people who thinks that the He Gets Us campaign shouldn't be made at all. Okay, so I've ranted now this whole time in one sense, all right? But let me conclude by telling you why I think the He Gets Us campaign is a.

Bad idea.

It's just bad. Christianity is not an ad campaign, and it's not a marketing strategy. Jesus does not need $100 million to make a Super Bowl ad. And all of this type of thing, all that does is it caters to the attention deficit of our society.

And when you try to squeeze deep answers, like the deepest, to the things that matter the most in our reality, which is the existence of God, the teachings, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, when you try to squeeze that into a 30 to 60-second Super Bowl commercial, you do not set up a person well towards the path of discipleship.

The only marketing that is required for Christians is to go and fulfill the Great Commission, one soul at a time. That has been and will always be, in my opinion, the greatest commercial for Jesus Christ.

It's you.

You, as follower of Jesus, loving and serving folks and telling them about the good news of the gospel. It has to be all of the above, and it has to come from you. But here's the irony in all of this.

How many of us right now are discipling a group of people in our spare time? How many of us this week have actively evangelized to non-believers that we know in our circles of influence, and have brought them into a discipleship community so that we can disciple them for a duration of time, and then send them back out so that they can go and do likewise with others?

That's the Great Commission, ladies and gentlemen, and I'm just afraid that we're not fulfilling it. And so it seems to me that the He Gets Us folks are—maybe they're recognizing that the Church is not fulfilling the Great Commission very well, particularly to a certain demographic of non-believer, and so here they come with their novel strategy, which is to create a million-dollar marketing campaign in order to try and compel folks to know Jesus more.

And I don't know, maybe that might work for some people. I don't want to limit how God will use the He Gets Us ad, but let me tell you, the best way to get somebody to read the Bible and know Jesus more is to show them Jesus in your actions, and to tell them about Jesus with your words.

If you think that people do not understand the love of Christ, the best way to do that is not get on Twitter or social media and rant about how other people are not representing Jesus correctly. The best way to do that is to love people like Christ yourself.

But you know what that requires? That we be the type of people who will leave our circle of like-minded folks and go to the outcast, and serve them, and love them, and teach them about Jesus and the gospel.

Are you willing to do that? Am I, right? Are we willing to do that as followers of Jesus Christ? Because here's what I can promise you. If we all committed to do that right now, each and every one of us who are followers of Jesus, if we just decided we're going to go out right now and fulfill the Great Commission, the whole world would turn upside down, and there would be no need for polished marketing campaigns and muddled 60-second messaging, because the people of God would shine their light so brightly that non-believers of every demographic would see our good works, and they would give glory to our Father in heaven.

Amen? Thank you so much for taking the time to hear me out. I'm a little amped. Let me calm down. Hey, now it's your turn, okay? What did you think about the He Gets Us campaign? And what do you think about the responses coming out from, you know, Christians all over the place about the He Gets Us campaign?

Was all of this a waste of time? Did they have a point somewhere in there? Let me know in the comments below. I'd love to get your thoughts on this. And hey, if you made it this far, you need to join my Patreon community, even just to read the Bible with me.

We're doing a Bible study together over on Patreon, and that's free for anyone who wants to join. You can also get exclusive access to videos like this before they make it to YouTube, and you can join me for exclusive live streams and ask me anything you want.

The link for the Patreon is below. I will saunter off, but return soon with more videos. And in the meantime, I'll say, bye for now.